The Magic Flute by Mozart: A Sliding Puzzle Game for iOS (with Tips and Tricks)

Before I start talking about the game, let’s talk about the origin of the title first. The Magic Flute or in its origin language, Die Zauberflöte, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (taken from Wikipedia). This opera that includes both singing and spoken dialogue, was premiered back on September 30th, 1971 in Vienna.

Fast forward to 2013, in the same place as the original opera, Austria, a Japanese director of musical and operas, Amon Miyamoto, was positioned as the Stage Director of The Magic Flute at Landestheater Linz, Austria. He has a brilliant vision to change this opera story into a video game. This is where coincidentally, two of LabLike colleagues were there as the visual arts crew.

Everything was converted. From the costumes, set, until AR-style projections of virtual scenography, was designed to make the whole show feel like an actual game. The hero became a player, experiencing a magic-filled digital realm on the other side of the TV screen.

And, after opera bringing gamification at its core, LabLike feels that its about time to return the favor. LabLike team take this idea and retelling the opera story, The Magic Flute, squished it all into a game. That’s including all the costumes, set, until the scenography. And so, The Magic Flute by Mozart was born.

The Magic Flute by Mozart: The Premise

In The Magic Flute by Mozart, you play as Tamino, a young fearless prince that by destiny, is brought into the kingdom of the Queen of the Night. After survive from the attack of a deadly servant, Tamino sends his promise to the queen to save queen’s daughter – the beautiful princess Pamina, from the hands of the evil Sarastro.

That’s how Tamino starts his adventure on a journey of mystery, magic and danger. With the help of the Magic Flute given to him by the three witches, Tamino must prove his loyalty, courage and rectitude to save the princess. However, just like many good stories has, there’s always a plot twist hidden beneath it. Rescuing queen’s daughter, Pamina, isn’t only the end but just the beginning of discovering the real secret of the Queen of the Night kingdom.

A video posted by Game Trailer By Modern Jamming (@trailergame) on Oct 4, 2015 at 9:36pm PDT

The Magic Flute by Mozart: The Gameplay

At its core, The Magic Flute by Mozart is a sliding puzzle game. You will have a generous 30+ levels with each level designed carefully, even made some couple of adjustment just to ensure that nothing is out of balance. Your goal is simple, to build a path, and exit the level. If you can build it under a certain time, you will have three stars. If you can’t, your stars will be reduced.

The challenge, however, lies in how you’re going to build the path to the exit door. To build the path, you just need to slide in tiles, arrange it so that your character can walk from his stand point to the exit door.

Along with your progress inside the game, the difficulty and variation on how you will slide your tiles will be increased. You will be meeting with tiles that can’t be moved, cracked tile that will collapse after you pass through it, and also guards with their flashlight that will capture you if your character is exposed to them. Oh and of course, there will be switch that will trigger something only when the right character step on its tile.

There are three available characters for you to play, Tamino as your first character, Papageno, and the queen’s daughter, Pamina. All of these characters will be available for you to play with, and don’t freak out when you encounter levels where they play together. Once a character steps on a tile, the other character won’t be able to hop on it, so plan smart if you want to finish the level.

To make matter worse, your sliding tile isn’t only made horizontally. Sliding tiles is possible both vertically and horizzontally. Moreover, each level can be finished in multiple ways, so your imagination and logical thinking are the only limits.

The Magic Flute by Mozart: Things I Like

As a musician, again and again I’m saying, and I’ve never get bored with it, is how I love playing a game that has good music behind it. With The Magic Flute by Mozart, I don’t have any trouble playing with this game couple times, solving the puzzles while listening to the opera music that’s created by the legendary Mozart himself.

Visually speaking, The Magic Flute by Mozart is a really gorgeous product. The characters design is resembling Hitman: Go with its sleek, square look. On the other hand, the colorful environment reminds me of Transistor. Not only the color, also the quality of the sound is similar to this game.

Despite some glitches that I saw here and there that I hope would be gone in the next update, the level design and difficulty curve are working pretty good. It starts with a relatively easy puzzle with some elements are introduced slowly to make me feel familiar with how the game works.

Then slowly, all the elements that have been introduced in the early level will start to appear together, until the late game where all the elements will be thrown you at the same time.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, this is a must-have game, a no-brainer, for any puzzle game lover. As for anyone that don’t think a puzzle is really a thing for them, you should still check this game out, just because it has a very beautiful graphics and awesome background music. Afterall, if you stuck in any level, you can count on me to help you out. Now, if you’ve played this game and sort of stuck on it. Rest assured, I have some tips and tricks for you to help you out of the hole.

The Magic Flute by Mozart: Tips and Tricks

It’s been a while since my last tips, but I’ve finally finished the game and find some tips that I think will be useful for you. Just in case, if you got stuck with a level, you can be sure to visit this page, or perhaps drop me some email to get a clearer shot.

If you’re asking me, why just the end of it. Well, I think sometimes when you stuck, you only need a glimpse of clue to solve the entire puzzle. So instead of giving you all the answers, I’ll just give you the big picture of the end result, and leave it to you to solve the entire puzzle.

However, if you think you still can’t find any clue to solve this puzzle, please do drop me an email and I’ll help you to finish it.

Chapter 1-3

These first three chapters won’t do you any harmful attack. Just plan your move, make sure that the tile that can’t be crossed is moved away so that you will have clear path for your tiles.

Chapter 4-6

These chapters are where the Serpent will start its attack. During this attack, the tile that you stood at will be blinking red. Don’t worry about this though, because the serpent will only attack once you’re moving into the yellow tile. Before than, please move freely and plan your tiles. This is important so that you won’t be stuck with the immoveable. My tips is to make sure that once you’ve reached the yellow tile, you will have tiles near you to move around.

Chapter 7-9

These chapters are where you will be introduced with the use of staircase. The trick with this staircase is that you need to notice the direction of the staircase picture. In these screenshots, you will see that the staircase will only appear if they are attached to a higher ground with the same direction as the staircase. Otherwise, they won’t do nothing and only work as normal staircase.

Chapter 10-12

These chapters are the place where I think you guys probably got stuck the most. In these chapters, the game introduced you with the vertical tiles. While you perhaps have noticed the different between the grey one and the sort of red-ish tiles, staircase will also work only when there is a grey box on top of the stack. The staircase won’t be shown when the grey box is in the middle between the red boxes. I’ve also attached the trick in solving chapter 12. In this chapter, notice that there is sort of “L” box that connect between side. This “L” will help you go down and acquiring the medal, then finish the level as well.

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 12

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 12

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 12

Chapter 13-15

These where the crumble tiles will showing their faces. The trick with these chapters is to put the uncrumble tile anywhere you plan your character to stop. When you’re run out of path and have to slide in more tile to make a new one or when you’re at the exit door. This is when your character will be stopping. Don’t put crumble tile in this position. Make sure it positioned in between, not at the end of the path.

Chapter 16-20

These chapters is the place when vertical tiles are combined with switches. This is also the time when you have to control more than one character at once. I’m pretty sure you have noticed that each trigger has its own color that can only be triggered by the character with the same color. For example, Tamino will only trigger purple switch and Papagino, yellow. I’ve attached the solution for chapter 17 to 20. When you’ve mastered this switch and lift, you will be able to finish the game with more ease.

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 16

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 17

Chapter 21-25

These chapters is where the guards with flashlight will be chasing you. Still with switches, but no vertical tiles this time. Also, Pamina will be joining Tamino in their adventure. Don’t let your characters exposed to the flashlight, that’s how the game goes. Pro tips, make sure that you can alienate the guards by removing their path and leave them in the corner. I’m attaching chapter 25 for this chapter is pretty hard for me to solve.

Chapter 26-28

These three chapters is where you have to fight with time. To do it, your character will have to go to its respective color. If you do it, the bad guy that chase you will be stunned and won’t do any harm to you. Fail to do so, he will run into you at a real time speed. To finish this level, try to play the music non-stop until the meter is full. Then you will be able to proceed to the next level. However, make sure that the guy whose chasing you isn’t in front of the exit door.

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 26

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 28

Chapter 29-31

This is where you will meet the bear. These chapters is a bit tricky because the bear will try to get close to you as long as there is a path from him to you. To escape from the bear, cut down any path to you as well as try to alienate the bear. Find a tile that close to you but not connected to you. When the bear come to that tile, cut down its path and you will be able to finish the level.

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 30

The Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 31

Chapter 32

This is the last chapter. Obviously, it will be as hard as hell for you. You will be handling all three, Tamino, Papageno, and Pamino. The trick here is to let Papageno move to the other side first. Then once he’s able to move side, get Pamina to follow him, and last Tamino will finish this act for you. I’ve put screenshots for you to help.

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 32

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 32

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 32

Magic Flute by Mozart – Chapter 32

About LabLike

LabLike is an independent studio based in Warsaw, Poland comprising a collective of artists, animators, editors, composers and directors seeking new areas of creativity. With previous experience in multiple transmedia projects such as TV commercials, short animations and video mapping – the team is now developing their first game for iOS –The Magic Flute by Mozart. The game is based on the Linz and Tokyo opera directed by Amon Miyamoto and will be released on July 16th 2015. LabLike’s mission is to turn the world into games, one experiment at a time. http://www.lablike.net